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# Re: Wish-list (!object nums)

- Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 19:43:43 PDT
- From:
- cc: MOO-Cows.parc@xerox.com
- In-Reply-to: "Your message of \"Sat, 24 Aug 1996 03:53:18 PDT.\" <199608240048.KAA15210@bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au>lice d"

    >The Goal:
    >1. Reduce reliance on object numbers.
    >
    >The Proposal:
    >1. When an object is created it can be tagged as 'global'
    >2. Unique objects have their names in a global name space, which can
    >be referenced from anywhere.
    >3. Local variables that clash with these unique names would override
    >them.

    First, I think it's a really bad idea to confuse the name used in
    the environment with the name used in programming.  The former should
    be able to be verbose, adjectived, and fully in flux, while the
    latter should be constant and absolute.

    Second, your proposal of "global" tags offers no improvement
    over the '$'-scheme.

    Your goal is indeed noble enough, but it can be done in-db.
    One common method is to corify one object and hierarchically
    extend using properties, ie "$furniture.chair.settee.brown".
    An approach more suitable for use in the environment is JHCore's
    "->" hack, which seems to look at children, ownership, contents,
    etc, ie "$player->maynard->library->book" or whatever.  I rarely
    if ever use object numbers directly in a jhcore.

    You'll notice that they both use a hierarchy, which is good,
    because it shows that we've learned that you can't store
    30,000 files in one directory.

    Paul

References:

- Wish-list (!object nums)

- From: "Geoffrey King" <zzgking@dingo.cc.uq.oz.au>

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